SILENCED AIR PUMP

Written by Gopherboy


As promised (better late than never)

The only additional thing I want to do to this is line the whole thing with foam, but nowhere sells it in my area, so I may have to resort to a next best thing & buy a cheap towel & wrap the pump in that, but tbh, Im in no hurry as I have already reduced sound by 90%

The pump is a TetraTec APS400, the plastic box was bought from staples for £4 and the intake filter (stops dust being sucked in) is from my pc tower case, I have a few spare but not for sale im afraid, so if you copy the idea, you'll have to devise your own (ie stick some carbon filter media over the hole instead)

Holes n slots etc were drilled out with a dremmel drill













Airpumps do not have to be above the tank if you have check valve, the water cant/wont flow back during power-down, the business of having it above the water surface is to prevent back flow without a check valve, however, a loop in the tubing achieves the same thing but MUST be ABOVE the water level

I figured the box was neater/tidier in the cabinet than a rolled up towel/lump of foam, also, I suspect many pumps are much quieter than mine which even when suspended (I used various BS fishing line for this) made a horrendous noise which is why I resorted to the box.

Airpumps will always be noisy if you plug them in without any resistance in the output end, ie airline, stone, water etc, another way you can help reduce the noise (and if necessary) the amount of bubbles produced, is to use a control valve (varu=iuos tyoes, the main two being a miniature g-clamp type thing that is screwed down onto the hose, not too tight tho as the hose can be split) and the other requires the cutting of the airline, and each of the two ends then slip over each side of the valve which had a screw plug in it which you use to control the amount of air passing thru.

as you say i think some foam or sponge is best, i have a sponge from a scourer for washing the dishers this seems to work fine no nose at all, i think airstones make a good addition to any setup.


dekker

I won this on ebay and i sit next to the tank and i can't hear nothing.
its attatched to a rubber 4ft bubble curtain to and i havan't got it turned up full
very powerfull little pump. i would certainly get another
it is stood on rubber feet.

Tetratec APS 150 aquarium airpump

mine is incresingly noisy - but its running my bn foam filter so its a case of put up n shut up

Ive replaced it on my mani tank with a big eheim - much better

nice pick up chez.

£6